Gard, Malcolm and Adam discuss the news that Massachusetts cops are arresting people who film them doing misdeeds. Nothing like "serving and protecting" huh? Then, the Conspiracy team looks at the news that music mega corporations are trying to shut down audio streaming sites.
It's tax season again. And for many of us, the idea of doing taxes and giving the IRS the pound of flesh they demand is a harrowing thought. One Austin, Texas, man, claiming to have been fed up with being ripped off by the IRS for over 20 years, flew a small plane into a building containing the local IRS office this morning.
Jersey Shore? Fuhgeddaboudit. Jersey City is the gem of reality TV. Shore is MTV. Jersey City is FBI. Like, how real is that? Killer videos of pols talking trash and passing cash have been unspooling in federal court in Newark at the trial of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini. Beldini was busted last summer in an FBI sweep that corralled dozens of Jersey pols. It was one of the largest corruption roundups in Jersey's thick history of roundups.
Gardner Goldsmith discusses the courage of Brad Jardis, a NH cop who was also a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and who just resigned from the police force, after fighting hard to keep his job and acknowledge the importance of free choice.
Cast your mind back to November, 2007. When the bursting housing bubble made it seem as if mortgage fraud perped by parties larger than brokers, bank clerks, and appraisers might finally matter. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent an ominous missive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He was launching an "industry-wide investigation into mortgage fraud" . . .
Raising a child is probably the most important thing a person will ever do in life. Yet we constantly hear stories of child abuse and neglect.
Prosecutors trying to put you in prison for a crime you didn't commit can fabricate evidence, coerce witnesses into lying on the stand, and enjoy absolute immunity. They cannot go to prison. They cannot even be sued. They aren't even likely to get so much as a reprimand from the bar association or from their bosses, even after publicly admitting to framing you.
An error in a national criminal record database cost Eschol Amelia Studnitz her job.
Police officers dressed as gangbangers shot and killed a northeast Georgia pastor Tuesday as he was trying to drive away from a convenience store.
Did you buy extra ammunition after Barack Obama was elected President, and are you still concerned that he might ban your guns? Are you concerned that the economic crisis could devolve into a depression, or worse? Do you think the federal government has overstepped its authority under the Constitution? If so, the government thinks you're a right-wing extremist and a potential terrorist threat.
The Transportation Security Administration compromised security testing of airport security screeners at as many as 11 airports by sending out an e-mail about the tests and failing to report the compromise, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid of a home allegedly looking for a fugitive alien. Instead, they found a Customs and Border Protection officer.
When alcohol was prohibited in the United States, it didn't take long for people to recognize it as a universally bad idea. Yet the same is true of the prohibition of other drugs, and for the same reasons. A popular slogan at the time was, "Save Our Children: Stamp Out Prohibition." Perhaps we should bring it back, because the war on drugs certainly is endangering our children.
You haven't done anything wrong, so why should you worry about surveillance? It was Cardinal Richelieu who said, "If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him." The United States doesn't hang innocent people any more, but it certainly does imprison them by the millions, and occasionally does kill them.
The U.S. military paid just under $1 million for two 19 cent flat washers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
A fundamental change occurs in the psyche of most people who work for the government. They begin to develop a superiority complex. After a while, they begin to believe they can do whatever they want to anyone who isn't part of their exclusive club. And to an extent, they're right: they have all the guns, after all. Here are a few examples of government employees showing their disdain for the ordinary people whose money they live on.
It's that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can't seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.
Illinois governor Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges, for allegedly attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, and trying to have Chicago Tribune editorial board members fired.
Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Ian Freeman will spend 100 days in jail because he questioned the legitimacy of a system which would penalize him for having a couch in his yard and conduct his trial in secret.
Evil omens re the economy hath melded Obama and McCain into one man, living in the cramped quarters of one craven political soul. Something/someone has to give. President-wannabe Obama McCain steps forth to issue a decree. Let the bailouts begin! Up the oligarchy! State capitalism we are here!
The Big Bailout Circus has the nation in stitches. Taxpayers are being sewn into a skin-tight forever suit by an amazingly bipartisan group of government clowns. But despite the agreement about the need for a slap dash redo of the U.S. financial system -- and by extension our political system -- the designing bozos disagree about details. And none can resist an occasional hit of the rubber chicken . . .
Neither straight-up businesses nor flat-out government agencies, Fannie and Freddie have enjoyed the best of both worlds. With their privatized profits pumped by the implicit guarantee of socialized losses -- in case of disaster break glass and soak taxpayer. That implicit guarantee has now become an explicit government takeover by the U.S. Treasury.
Cynicism is a sin in the Age Of Hope. But cynics won't go gently into the goody good night. . . .
The federal government has tried almost everything in its various bids to get undocumented immigrants out of the country. Now it's trying something simple and unusual: just asking them to please leave.
"Your safety is our priority," the Transportation Security Administration web site tells us. So how does the TSA explain these four ways it's keeping air travelers unsafe?
A Brooklyn jury has found Emmanuel "Toto" Constant guilty of mortgage fraud and grand larceny. Constant is the former founder and leader of FRAPH, the Haitian paramilitary group that in the early 90's systematically tortured and murdered thousands of supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin announced that the city would begin citing residents who did not vacate the FEMA trailers in which they have been living.
On July 4 I woke up in Pennsylvania, in a mansion which had served as a station on the Underground Railroad, that network of people and places which helped slaves escape their bondage before and during the Civil War. And I thought that, with the replacement of yesterday's chattel slavery with today's universal bondage, it may be time for a new Underground Railroad.
You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department of Homeland Security's research and development office.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that the individual right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment was nevertheless open to regulation, restriction, licensing and registration, just like the First Amendment.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators received a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to implement a "verification hub" connecting state and federal databases under the REAL ID program.
So far the federal government has done little to respond to the historic floods in eastern Iowa which are among the worst in recorded history. In order to maintain tyranny in the flooded areas, local governments have had to step up to meet the challenge.
Back in April (it seems like an eon of Clinton ago!) FBI Director Robert Mueller gave a speech to the American Bar Association titled "Corporate Fraud and Public Corruption: Are We Becoming More Crooked?" The question was left open. Mueller wrapped up with a Teddy Roosevelt quote: "Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual, and of nations alike."
Ostensibly the Transportation Security Administration exists to keep Americans safe when they fly. In reality it's a bureaucratic nightmare which never should have been created in the first place. Consider what the TSA has done to pilots and air marshals to put you at risk.
Transportation Security Administration rules are to blame for the conditions leading up to an accidental discharge of a U.S. Airways pilot's pistol during landing, say airline pilots familiar with the program.
Federal government employees spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money using their government purchase cards to pay for questionable items such as Internet dating services, Brooks Brothers suits, expensive steak dinners, personalized iPods, computers, and more, and much of the expensive electronic equipment has been lost or stolen, according to Congressional investigators.
"What are you working on today, Madam President?" asked Doctor Murchison."My plan to fix the housing crisis," said Hillary, without looking up.
The Department of Homeland Security has granted an extension to New Hampshire for compliance with the provisions of the federal REAL ID program.
The New Hampshire state representative who made headlines last year when he e-mailed a constituent suggesting that he snitch out his marijuana-smoking friends is at it again.
Albany. The capital of New York. The heart of state government. Can't you feel the rhythm of the beat? Lub dub lub dub. Pols who make it there, don't need to go anywhere -- they can stay in Albany forever and ever and ever. The governor's mansion is akin to the hotel in "The Shining." After taking over, the new guy always goes barmy. He doesn't even have to live in it. Just throw an occasional reception.
Are you an American terrorist sympathizer but don't know how to strike back at the Great Satan? Afraid of getting arrested while your plot to blow up something or other is still half-baked? You don't have to worry anymore. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency want to hire you.
Hot damn. The government is going to stimulate the economy. Not with a lap dance or lubricated love glove, but with taxpayer dollars. Come summer, Mister and Miz America will get a rebate from Uncle Sam. What a man! Some people will get more than a thou of their own money back. Consumers will rush out and pump the economy. Wal-Mart here we come. Simultaneously, just like in romance novels.
The 2008 New Hampshire Liberty Forum, for me, was three action-packed, fun-filled days of meeting great people, hearing some of the best speakers anywhere, and partying hard late into the nights.
Barry Cooper is one of the most controversial people in the anti-prohibition movement. The release of his 2006 DVD, Never Get Busted Again, got him kicked out of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and led many to call him a sellout, or worse.
One of the requirements for a totalitarian police state is a system of kangaroo courts, star chambers which operate in secret and in parallel to the existing judicial system to convict political prisoners of pretended crimes against the state, which could never survive in the regular courts. And former judge Michael Mukasey, nominee for U.S. Attorney General to replace Alberto Gonzales, has proposed that the United States adopt such a system of courts.
Town aldermen in Dover, N.J., worried that terrorists could attack the town's children by poisoning gumballs in coin-operated gumball machines, have launched an inspection of every machine they can find.
Here at Homeland Stupidity, no government cow is sacred. Waste, fraud, abuse, plain incompetence, and bad policy are all fair game. As a result, government officials in the higher pay grades tend to be displeased with what they read here. As a general rule, the higher the pay grade, the more displeased.Therefore, I was not at all surprised to hear that high-ranking officials in the U.S. Marshals Service were upset with Sunday's published story regarding their Office of Protective Intelligence. I was, however, surprised to spot two surveillance teams while going about my business Tuesday night.
Satire became reality Friday afternoon when half a dozen armed federal agents wearing body armor showed up at this author's home and detained everyone in the house for nearly 90 minutes to determine who might pose a threat to the government.
A Justice Department audit of the government's master list of known and suspected terrorists found errors and inconsistencies which would have allowed terrorists to enter the country undetected and would mistakenly identify innocent Americans as terrorists.
My loyal readers are probably wondering why there hasn't been a posting here in ten days. Before I get back into the daily grind of bringing you the latest in government stupidity, I have a few words to say about what life in these United States has become for someone who truly values the principles of liberty on which this country supposedly rests.
Over the past decade, cities around the country have established clergy response teams, comprised of pastors, priests and other religious leaders from all religious denominations, to provide aid, counseling and assistance to victims of crime and lately of natural disasters. Now a report suggests that these clergy response teams may be used to help put down civil unrest and enforce martial law.
You won't believe how much fun the New York State political scene has been this Summer! Like Uncle Ira says, ain’t nothing more persistent than chicken thieves who’ve gotten used to easy pickins.
The state of Vermont has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new driver license document which will be accepted in lieu of a passport for border crossings, the department announced Tuesday.
After a humiliating defeat for an attempt to completely ban honest people from owning firearms, San Francisco, Calif., mayor Gavin Newsom two weeks ago signed local legislation requiring gun owners in the city to keep their firearms locked up in boxes or with trigger locks.
Listen up kiddies, summer doesn't mean down time when it comes to corruption in Jersey.
How has government violated your rights to life, liberty and property? Tell us your story.
As you are probably aware, the greatest threat to your privacy and well-being stems from the government, whether directly or indirectly. Even the "freest" or "most democratic" governments have committed their share of atrocities, and even if you think you're safe today, if the political winds blow in a different direction tomorrow, you could be the next victim.Today, governments use databases to track virtually everything, including their own people. So an important part of protecting yourself is to minimize the amount of information governments have about you.
On June 18, I visited the Plainfield, N.H., home of Ed and Elaine Brown, to attend a press conference. Since then, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided they should keep an eye on me.But one or two people have decided that they should harass and annoy me as well.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reported to have launched a criminal investigation into FBI employees' alleged misuse of national security letters to obtain information on Americans.
Updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity.
The more than 40 local and regional intelligence fusion centers created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to improve information sharing between the federal government and state, local and tribal law enforcement, are failing to accomplish their mission of protecting the homeland.
On April 27, 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate intelligence committee that Congress should renew the USA PATRIOT Act, saying that there had "not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse."But six days earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent Gonzales a report which said otherwise.
Updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity include spying, spying and more spying.
This day the rain moved in early in the afternoon, and continued well into the night, and yet people still set off their fireworks here in a city where it's, as far as I know, perfectly legal to do so. But while the star-spangled banner yet waves, the freedom it represents is a distant memory.
U.S. marshals in New Hampshire have made plans to arrest convicted tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown of Plainfield, along with their supporters, according to an anonymous Justice Department source who also threatened this author with jail.
A new audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of national security letters to gain access to information about domestic phone calls, e-mails and personal financial information revealed over 1,000 cases where agents may have violated the law or regulations governing the use of the letters.
You may have noticed a significant drop in the frequency and number of postings in the last week or so. While I attempt to resume normal activity around here I wanted to let everyone know what's been keeping me away. And yes, it has to do with the federal government.
A fax sent by Bank of America's corporate office to its Ashland, Mass., branch last week was garbled in transmission. When it came out the other end, a bank employee saw clip art of a hand lighting a match to a bomb and called police. You can guess what happened next.
A passport card set to be issued by the State Department for travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean doesn't require privacy protection, even though it uses a radio frequency identification chip which can be read from 20 feet away, because the chip itself doesn't contain personal information, according to the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
A critical Federal Bureau of Investigation network for sharing law enforcement and investigative information is at risk of being misused or having its services interrupted, according to an audit released this week.
Members of a group who went to Greensburg, Kan., to assist in relief efforts after a May 5 tornado destroyed most of the town were forcibly ejected by police on the scene for being "federal security threats."
On Friday, May 4, an F5 tornado wiped the town of Greensburg, Kan., almost entirely off the map. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with the National Guard and local police from all over Kansas, then systematically kept out relief workers while they went house to house disarming the residents.
For those who doubted that Rep. Ron Paul was a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, the debate Tuesday night in South Carolina put all doubts to rest. Paul stirred up a firestorm of controversy for suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security made national security even more inefficient after September 11 than before, and especially for his assertion that U.S. foreign policy over the past several decades contributed to the rise of Islamic terrorism.But viewers at home responded, putting Ron Paul in second place in FOX's own tamper-proof viewer poll.
Two men who planted electronic light boards around the city of Boston to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon, resulting in city officials overreacting and shutting down the city, have resolved the criminal charges against them.
If you're an American reading this, then under expansive definitions being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several states in their counterterrorism training, you just might be a domestic terrorist.
"Federal, State, and local governments are responsive, innovative, and effective because of the outstanding work of public servants."If you believe that, I've got some critical infrastructure to sell you. But Congress certainly seems to believe it, unless they've recently taken to passing satire off as Congressional resolutions.
Boston became the laughingstock of the country earlier this year after two incidents in which it responded to harmless devices as if they were real terrorist threats. Now Sen. Ed Kennedy (D-Mass.) wants to make absurd overreaction into national policy.
Whether it's harassing elderly and disabled travelers, or breaking or even stealing valuables from passengers' luggage, almost everyone has a low opinion of the Transportation Security Administration. Except, perhaps, for those who want to get in on the jackbooted action.
A hard drive containing the names, Social Security and bank account numbers for 100,000 current and former Transportation Security Administration employees was reported stolen this week, prompting a criminal investigation.
Until this week, the only people who really hated the Jersey Guys were corrupt politicians. Now, corrupt state troopers hate them, too.Craig Carton and Ray Rossi walked out in the middle of their popular afternoon talk radio show and took their families into hiding after learning of a press conference in which New Jersey state police union leader David Jones gave out their home addresses and threatened to "crush" the people who leaked anonymous Internet postings by state troopers in which they apparently were plotting a ticket-writing blitz.
Morale at the Department of Homeland Security remains low, but Marta Perez, the department's new human capital officer, says that "significant progress is being made." It's just not clear what the department is progressing toward, exactly.
The majority of Americans, it seems, support the idea of a national ID, as long as it doesn't contain biometric information, according to a recent UPI/Zogby poll. But a large coalition of groups from every part of the political spectrum has gotten together to oppose the REAL ID Act as a threat to Americans' security.
It's said in the Bible that the poor will always be among us. In Springfield, Ill., as in most cities across the U.S., the homeless are at the public library. They use the restroom in the stairwell of the parking garage on top of which the library sits and they store their meager tarp-covered possessions next to the building. And mayor Tim Davlin is apparently at his wit's end trying to deal with the homeless problem.But a local alderman has come up with a novel idea to clean up downtown Springfield: Suggest a terrorist threat from homeless people.
If you're a potential threat, and you want to get those critical pictures of a bridge or a nuclear reactor, what do you do? After all, these days you're bound to have cops on your ass within minutes.
Democrats in Congress are desperate to do something about the so-called tax gap, but they know that if they raise taxes, they'll be out on their asses in 2008. So they're going to try to squeeze ordinary Americans a little differently.
Trust the government with your identity and you just might lose it. Even if the identity thief is already in prison.
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson is asking Congress to pass a proposal for a "modernization" of FHA mortgage loan programs.Waste and fraud are HUD's long suit. Like other HUD heads Alphonso Jackson wears it well. But according to Alphonso, the FHA needs letting out in order to cover the subprime mortgage slump.
"Terrorists win when the fear of them induces us to destroy the rights that make us free." Those were the words of one victim of post-9/11 anti-terrorism hysteria to a Congressional committee on Wednesday. So we got national security letters, a terrorist surveillance program, and probably many other programs, but instead of stopping terrorists, these programs have targeted ordinary Americans.
I'm in the market for a new portable media player, since my current one is getting rather old, not to mention full. Naturally, I looked at the current crop of iPods. They're excellent hardware and work well. But I won't buy one, not because of the iPod itself, but because of Apple's no-privacy policy.
Police in Pullman, Wash., got a tip from a "concerned citizen" that a grow operation was going on in an apartment that he'd just visited. Two hours later, police had their search warrant, and eight police officers went in, guns drawn.It was indeed a grow operation. The residents were growing tomatoes.
The REAL ID Act will be a real nightmare for many reasons, only one of which is the fact that government bureaucrats will finally get most of the errors out of their massive databases on virtually every American.
Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign a bill passed last week which would ostensibly prevent the state from participating in the REAL ID program, at least until the government ponies up some money to pay for it.
The biggest threat to your personal identity, as you should know by now, is the government. It has the largest databases, the most information about you, and the most corrupt people. So it's no surprise that government data about you is a prime target for identity thieves. Here are a few more examples.
In case you haven't noticed, there haven't been any posts here in several days. This is primarily because I've been wrapped up with another project which has taken up virtually all of my time since the last post. To make it up to you, I'm just going to give you links to several interesting items in my unread list for you to enjoy.
The federal government expects you to do your part to help catch terrorists, by screening everyone you do business with against a public blacklist of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers maintained by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Worse, people are actually starting to do this, and the national credit reporting agencies are now putting the government's black marks on the wrong people's credit reports.
Maryland state police conducted what they call a "homeland security" operation Wednesday near the MARC commuter rail station in Brunswick. So, if it's about homeland security, why did the police have drug dogs sniffing cars?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly broke the law in order to obtain personal information about tens of thousands of Americans, much of which was never related to any sort of investigation, according to an inspector general's report released Friday.
Affirming the right of the people to keep and bear arms, especially in self-defense, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that key parts of the District's handgun ban were unconstitutional.
"Soccer teams, family reunions and Civil War re-enactors" are in danger of being misidentified as terrorists from a data-mining program the Department of Homeland Security is testing which may have already violated privacy laws.
The government can access hard drives which are supposedly protected with common drive locking features offered by many major computer manufacturers. This is not news to many of my readers, but it certainly was news to Michael Alan Crooker.
Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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